Two Billion Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz
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by John Bacher
Dundurn, Toronto, 2011
280 pp., illus., $26.99 paperback
Edmund Zavitz is hardly a household name, but John Bacher’s book Two Billion Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz makes a strong case that it should be.
Zavitz was an earnest, industrious Ontarian whose passion for trees shaped his entire life. Born in 1875 into a family of encouraging nature lovers, Zavitz would also receive support as an adult from his father-in-law, John Dryden, the provincial minister of agriculture from 1899 to 1905.
While classmates at McMaster University dismissed Zavitz as an odd fellow whose “sole interest was in trees,” they later observed that, as a result of his work, “the province of Ontario is again being covered with forests, and we brag about having been to school with him.”
And with good reason, Bacher argues. In 1912, Zavitz became the first provincial forester when he took a position at the Ontario Ministry of Lands, Forests and Mines. Zavitz was known as the “father of reforestation” for his efforts in saving Ontario forests from floods, erosion, and fires. He is credited with the establishment of the Forest Fires Prevention Act as well as St. Williams Station, Ontario’s first tree nursery.
Bacher provides a detailed look at a man whose lifelong efforts helped change the landscape of modern Ontario. Two Billion Trees and Counting is a reverential story of someone who was a family man, sportsman, photographer, and, above all, a naturalist.
— Laina Hughes (Read bio)
Laina Hughes is a Winnipeg writer and marketing professional.